VARIOUS SPEECHES and introductions of mistresses and one or two masters who held classes, were given during the 'Feast of Greeting' as the schedule called this first informal lunch and then a group of older girls sang a song and welcomed the new girls with a round of applause that actually made some of the first years blush.
'How thrilling! There is to be a midnight procession as part of the first night of the new academic year,' Vetta said, scrolling through her school information feed when the girls had returned to their dorms for an afternoon nap. 'Everybody has to wear purple robes with hoods so we all look alike. It symbolises the fact we are all the same and start from the same point.'
'Well I shall wear a particular shade of purple,' Pirouette said smugly, 'to distinguish myself. After all, we do not actually all start from the same point.'
'And we all get to carry identical candles,' Vetta added, not being dampened in her enthusiasm for the ceremony by the other girl's opposing comments.
'No doubt Pirry's candle will be longer, or wavy or something to extinguish, I mean to distinguish her also,' Meresinth could not help adding her own take on the matter. It was clearly becoming apparent she was fond of witticisms.
'Please refrain from calling me Pirry. My name as you know is Pirouette Wrangely,' the girl sniffed.
'Sorry, don't get in a spin if I said it wrongly,' came a smart retort. The puns were too good to ignore and the other girls sniggered in their sleeves. All except Vetta, who blinked and smiled and seemed content with matters either way.
Dolly Bloomen yawned. It quickly became apparent there was a trade off in her demeanour. Being very fit and sporting and spending a lot of time out of doors in the sunshine, though she actually came from the cold northern land called Nordeyer, meant she expended vast amounts of energy in short bursts. Then came moments when she had to recharge her batteries, and this meant lots and lots of sleep.
'Well, I'm going to take advantage of nap time if we are all going to be traipsing around the school at midnight,' she said, stretching. 'And I'll take full advantage of the lie in we've been assigned next day too. I'm a sleepy soul.' With that she fell down upon her bed fully dressed and it was as if she had been switched off like a robot or something for to Vetta's amazement she began snoring almost immediately.
This made the others girls quieten down also, except for Pirouette, who was lecturing the somewhat quiet bespectacled girl in the middle bed opposite hers.
'It's a shame you wear glasses,' Pirouette said to her in helpfully tragic tones. 'You are reasonably pretty. Why haven't your parents offered you laser correction?'
'There is nothing wrong with my eyes,' Anthera replied resentfully. 'These spectacles make them stronger,' and she gestured as if she could see a long way off.
'If I lose anything,' Pirouette replied without missing a beat, 'I shall be sure to call you.'
Meresinth gave Vetta a look but the Poldorama girl was already composing herself to sleep so she could dream of all the exciting days ahead at Miss Plazenby's. It was thus quite a startling moment indeed when she was woken by a scream elsewhere in the building.
Everyone crowded into the corridors and older girls were shushing the chattering voices and appealing for calm.
'Did someone step on a snail?' one of the twins was heard asking, making some girls cackle which lightened the alarmed mood somewhat.
'No,' came the measured tones of a third year who had taken command of the corridors on the top floor. 'It appears one of you silly newcomers saw a shadow on a balcony and thought it an intruder. I might remind you girls the rooftops are accessible from the balconies in your rooms but that until instructed otherwise no one is to venture up there. It was probably a second year fooling around, trying to give you lot a fright.'
'Well, she failed,' came a mutter from the girl Vetta remembered on the coach, a fierce-looking character with dark eyes and a mass of black hair that seemed to swirl around in the slightest breeze. The Poldorama girl thought differently from this menacing individual. She had in fact been most thoroughly frightened.
A tour of the building, including the rooftops, was conducted by several mistresses later that day and the evening meal was a riotous affair as school rules were not yet in force. When Dolly realised the boisterous twins were from Nordeyer like herself this seemed an excuse to start a bun fight that became general. Even Vetta ventured to throw a bread roll once in a moment of daring but it bounced off Pirouette's head when she was looking the other way so that the guilty culprit hid under the table until the meal was over.